My Cup of Tea

I'm a tea girl. In the mornings, instead of groggily chugging a bitter cup of coffee to force caffeine into my veins, I enjoy the daily ritual of tea - boiling the water, carefully wrapping the string around the handle of my mug, steeping the tea, gently squeezing the bag to release the most concentrated flavors, and, of course, sweetening and sipping. For my birthday, I even invested in a cordless electric tea kettle, something that's not often seen here in the States. I go through tea phases, where I'll drink nothing but black tea, then I'll switch to green, then green jasmine, the latest endeavor being white tea. For years I drank nothing but Earl Grey, which I occasionally revert back to these days - Earl Grey with a splash of heavy cream and two sugars on a chilly, rainy afternoon? Heaven.

The tea choices at the local grocery store aren't the best, but I recently stumbled upon something that caught my eye. Lipton has come out with a new line of teas that they're calling their Pyramid Teas, which remind me of a lot of the teas that you'll find overseas. The bags are made from a gossamer mesh, which allows for better water-tea infusion, and their shape allows the tea more room to mingle with the hot water.

This is by far the best tea I've ever purchased from Lipton. The tea and dried fruit inside the bag are completely identifiable, and the tea is so fresh that once it's steeped, it swells up so much that the bag is burgeoning with swollen tea leaves by the time you take it out of the water.

I've tried the white tea with peach and the green tea with mandarin orange, both hot and iced, and they're equally delicious and flavorful. I hope this isn't a fad that Lipton is going through and within six months, these teas will be pulled from the shelves because people just love their Luzianne too much. I would choose these over Luzianne anyday. I'm already looking forward to my ritual tomorrow morning.